Pages

Monday, March 28, 2016

Hello everyone, Lucinde here! I want to share another bible journaling page with you today. We just celebrated Easter and I want to take a closer look at some words Jesus spoke a while before He was crucified. And this weekend, at Easter, I was reminded of these words from John 8:34-36.

“Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (NIV)

Jesus died on the cross for us and I can’t thank Him enough for it. But there are still times I tend to try and save myself. There are days when I feel like a slave to sin and I can’t save myself. Luckily Jesus took all of my sins on Him and He was the one that saved ME. It’s so unbelievable that someone would take all the blame for everything I’ve ever done. But Jesus did. He set us free. So this page reminds me of that fact; Jesus set us free, we are no longer slaves but we became the children of the one true King!

I've got this stamped journaling card taped in where I can read about the death of Jesus. It serves as a reminder that He is no longer dead - He is risen! (He is risen, indeed.) For this one I combined two stamp sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps - The Lord is Risen and Worship the Lord.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Rebecca here & I'm thrilled to be blogging in honor of my stamp set, Note This, being included in this month's Bible journaling kit. I thought I'd give you a look into my creative process in the designing of this set. I really wanted stamps that people could not only use while doing creative worship, but that would also be practical for Bible study and note taking.

I considered different responses I might have as I studied Scripture and those responses made their way (via handlettering!) in Note This. I wanted believers to be able to "Say Yes to" various truths or to stamp "God is..." when you discovered a new facet of His character. Other responses that came to mind were "remember", "Mark these words" and "right where He wants me".

There's even a mini lightbulb for documenting those AHA! moments while you're reading. These handlettered thoughts make great accents to artistic faith projects as well. I looooove stamping Amen at the end of journaled page (it's like my way of saying this page is done)!

I included a Note to Self design (perfect for sermon notes!) and even though it may seem simple, But God is there for all those times you want to highlight that He is the hero of every story. (I kind of just want to stamp this on every page!)

There's soooo many different ways to combine all these elements that I can't even list them all. Arrows and my signature ampersand round out the embellishments. Note This is perfect for your prayer journal, sermon notes, deep thoughts, and even to pretty up your planner! Happy Friday y'all & be blessed!

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Ever have one of those days where it seems nothing is going right, you've made a few missteps and then on top of it all the other shoe seems to drop? These type of days used to bring me to tears, then to my pajamas & finally, to my couch for days. Well ladies & gentlemen, I had one of these days yesterday- the difference is, rather than hitting the couch, I hit the Bible!

This week my kiddos are on Spring Break and in all honesty my days are just running together. I mistakenly put my blog due date for next week and woke up in a panic when I realized yesterday was, in fact, my due date (the first shoe to drop). Thankfully, Korin, being the amazing person she is- said no biggie go ahead and post tomorrow. (Again, so humbled and honored to be a part of her team.) Fast forward to the end of my day (and the proverbial 2nd shoe dropping):
As a mom of tween/teen girls, I keep very close tabs on their phones and social media happenings. I CAN, WILL and DO at ANY TIME pick up my kid's phones and go through them. (As much privacy as I'd like to think they can be responsible for, I know they are children and need a 2nd set of eyes on what they are doing.) We all make mistakes and it is my job to help them when this happens. I digress... While going through my 11 year old daughter's phone I found some pretty disturbing/ mean texts from a couple girls that are very good friend's of my daughter's. When I asked Brenna what was going on with these messages she simply stated that she has been left out lately, is hurting and pretty upset about it. She was told that she is not being included because she is not going to the same Jr. High school as the other girls and that these girls are wanting to get to know each other better- this no longer includes Brenna. UGH- talk about a knife to my heart. What is even more sad about this situation is this; I was asked by one of these moms to help her out so her daughter isn't home alone during break, due to her being out of town. What has since happened, is her daughter "picking & choosing" who is helping her mom out, she is deciding who she would like to "hang" with. This obviously doesn't include our family and our daughter.

These two events really got me thinking- how can I become a person that can take a crummy day and situation like this and try and make the most of it. How can I dry the tears of my 11 year old and lead by example, reassuring her things may be hard now but they won't be forever. I used to be the example of letting it destroy me, stress me out and have anxiety over it for days. I no longer wanted to be this person or this example to my daughter. I want to teach her there is somewhere she can go to be uplifted- Of course I turned to my Bible.

John 16:22
"So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you."

I choose Joy. I choose to remind myself and my daughter that God is Joy and no matter what happens He and I have her back at all times. No one can take away our Joy- no matter how deep the hurt and pain- as long as we keep God in the forefront of our lives. Personally, I have to remind myself that in God I can find all the joy, love, inspiration, support, wisdom, encouragement and words I need to get through times of sorrow. I dedicate this page to my daughter Brenna. Just like looking at her, when I look at this page it makes me smile and full of Joy!

The flowers in the margin were hand drawn and water colored. (I created this page during a live Periscope @Jamie_Journals and it can be viewed for a few more hours. If you miss it- all of my Periscope replays can be viewed on katch.me

As always, thank you for taking the time to read this blog- spending time getting to know me and letting me share with you this journey I am on. It is definitely a marathon not a sprint!

The
team has been so blessed by your enthusiasm for our new line of Bible
Journaling stamps and your desire to dive into God's Word more fervently
through this creative form of worship. May He continue to bless us as
we seek to bring Him glory through our worship and our art. He is so
worthy!

Now onto my page...

No doubt you
are spending much time in thought during this Holy Week leading up to
our Savior's precious sacrifice on the cross. It is a sober time to
reflect on His amazing gift for us, His creation, who do not
deserve His unconditional love and indescribable grace, yet He gives
them both freely! What a love! What a COST!

For my page I wanted to use some of the fun elements included in our He is Risen Bible Journaling Kit. The vellum calvary die cut was the perfect focal point for my page, so I sponged a scene around it with my Memento ink pads and sponge daubers, then stamped and handlettered the journaling. I love the image of the praying girl in our I am Loved stamp set so I added that as well. It seemed appropriate for my theme of thanksgiving for Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. The tip-in is also from the kit and was illustrated by Rebecca Rios. I love her many styles of handlettering. I added some extra touches with more stamps (What's Up? set) and white highlights using my favorite Sharpie Paint Pen. The tip-in was attached with some washi tape and I wrote a personal prayer of thanks to my Lord under it.

Monday, March 21, 2016

The last few weeks in my family's life have been filled with hope...the certain kind of hope that comes from trusting God no matter what. We had a near-devastating experience with the birth of my grandson. I believe with all my heart the enemy had another plan but the prayers of so many family and friends...even those right here at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps...inclined God's ear toward us. We definitely saw His mighty hand of intervention. Where the enemy planned death...God prevailed in bringing life to our family. My grandson and precious daughter-in-law survived and are improving day by day. Thank you to all who prayed on our behalf!

The very first verse I wanted to journal upon returning home was Romans 15:13, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. We felt first-hand how God is in command of the hope that fills our hearts as we trust in Him. The more we surrendered to His will in all things, the more HOPE we gained. Hope overcame anxiety, joy overcame tears, and God overcame death. What a sweet personal picture of our hope in the cross of Christ and His redeeming work as we approach Easter!

I chose three Sweet 'n Sassy stamps from the Creative Worship Bible Journaling section of the store to visually depict this verse.

I love all three of these sets because they offer so much versatility. I can't art-journal fast enough! This page in my Bible will always have a great deal of meaning to me. The God of hope reached down and rescued our family from despair.

May the God of hope fill your heart with joy and peace this week as you trust Him in every circumstance of life. I pray He will take my humble efforts at art in my Bible to bless others with the majesty, power and grace He offers through His Word.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Hello there, Audrey here! Today I have a bible page to share with you using the Creative Worship: His Wings stamp set! I chose to journal Psalm 91:4. The His Wings stamp set have all of the words in that Psalm for you to include the entire verse on your page. I started off my lining up my word stamps as I wanted them on my page, and then picked up each line, one by one on my acrylic block, and stamping the verse a line at a time. I was sure to use waterproof ink because I planned to watercolor over top of them and I didn't want the ink to bleed. If you don't have waterproof ink, you could always watercolor first, and then stamp after it's dried. After I watercolored, I stamped the feather images included in the stamp set randomly around the page. I use ink colors slightly darker than the watercolor beneath them. Then, I stamped the more detailed outline feathers and the bird in flight in black ink. Everything was looking a little flat for me, so I added some accents with a white gel pen. I added polkadots to the feathers, and outlined the colored feathers and the bigger words in the verse in white gel pen. Suddenly, everything started popping off of the page! It's amazing how one little addition can change the look of the entire page!

Monday, March 14, 2016

Hello! I’m Lucinde, a new name on the blog :). I’m bible journaling for a year now and I really love to spend my time in the word of God and to get creative in my bible. I love to use stamps, I design stamp sets for Sweet ’n Sassy stamps but I’m stil hesitating to illustrate in my bible without stamps. For some reason I’m afraid that it won’t turn out the way I imagined it, and that’s a worry I can let go of when I use stamps. I think everyone over here is so right to say that this is a beautiful way of worship. I’m not the best singer, so I’m glad I can worship this way too. But, while I might not be recording my own songs, a lot of times worship music is my inspiration for a page.

That’s enough about me, let’s continue with my page and the word of God. My first page starts with a worship song, I told you it was one of my biggest resources of inspiration ;). Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of older hymns. The messages are so beautiful and especially ‘Come Thou fount of Every blessing’ really resonated with me. For this page I focused on the part ‘Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.’ I really want to give the Lord my praise but I feel like I’m still wandering a lot. That God deserves so much more praise than what I’m giving Him.

I journaled this in Psalm 119 (verse 9-16) where the writer tells about his love for the Lord and his commandments. I thought this passage was really matching the feelings I had when listening to the hymn. ‘With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.’

I prepared my page with matte medium (the bible I’m using has very thin pages, thinner than most English journaling bibles. You can see in the close up that it does add some texture to the page but I don’t really mind. When I’m not using it the stamps will be three times darker on the back of my pages than on the front side haha) and I stamped my images and messages with black ink. I colored the images with colored pencils and made the background with distress inks. I journaled some of my thoughts on the right side of the page (it tells about the writer, how he loves the commandments of the Lord and that he doesn’t look at them as something that’s holding him back in life but that he sees them as rules to make his life better).

Using things like pens and colored pencils come naturally to me - I've been drawing and coloring for as long as I can remember. As someone who has also been papercrafting and stamping for a long time, it just feels right to incorporate some stamps and basic papercrafting supplies as well. I don't intend for the "craft" to take over the focus on what I am reading/creating/journaling about, so I want to keep working with methods and media that feel natural to me.

Most often for my Bible art & journaling I start with something I have read or heard (in a sermon) and a picture or idea just comes to mind. But other times, I hear a song or think of an idea and want to incorporate it into my Bible. For one of my recent entries, I was looking at the Seek Him stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and the phrase "to know Him is to love Him" just popped out at me. (No, there is no "is" in the set, but the rest of the words are there. The "is" that I used is from The Lord Is Risen.)

1 John 2:3&5 just seemed like the place to put this. It says (NIV):

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.

When I was younger, my obedience to God was generally based in fear, but as I have come to know more about Him I have seen how good and loving He is - and I love that. The stamps here said what I wanted to say, and I didn't want to add a bunch of fuss - just a hint of color with the hearts.

Another of my recent Bible entries came from a thought that came to mind - a song, actually.

"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart."

(Where?)

I wanted to create something in the margins that felt joyful, so I picked two colors (for the dots) that bring me joy and just went to stamping "joy" all over. (The dots are actually created by using the back side of the "o" stamp from the Cold Coffee Alphabet.) The "joy" words are from a stamp set (coming soon!) called Choose Faith and I added a few dots and other accents with a white Sharpie paint pen.

Philippians 4:4 (NIV) says:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Repeat stamping is soothing for me and it was fun to just sing a joyful song as I was stamping away.

May you have a joyful day today!

You can find a list of all the supplies I used and more of my Bible journaling posts over on my blog.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Good Morning- Jamie here!
Have you ever been in a "creative funk" (for lack of a better phrase)? Who has two thumbs and just experienced her first? This girl! Right here! What a strange place to be. I seriously hadn't completed a Bible page in the month of March, up until Monday. For me, something wasn't connecting or "clicking"- I can't explain it better than that. I was in a dry place and questioning where I fit into God's plan. That was until I had lunch with a new friend.

We met at bible study this year and she is someone I was
instantly drawn to by her sheer abundance of faith and how she lives her
life on that alone. This is the first time we have connected outside of our weekly Bible study and sadly, this was a going away lunch, as she is making an unexpected move to Texas. We came to lunch both armed with books, her book worn and well loved, mine brand spankin' new. Both of these books were to be gifts to one another- completely unplanned. The beautifully worn book she was gifting to me was a devotional that had helped her through the decision to follow God and his plan for her in Texas. As we spoke over lunch, I talked to her about this funk I was in and shared that recently, I had been mailed a stamp set from Korin and was finally feeling inspired. I also shared with her that I was worried about a post I made expressing my excitement about the new stamps and how it may have been against the rules in the group where I posted. (If you've read my last post
you will know that I suffer from depression and anxiety- along with
this comes a pretty low self esteem and I tend to beat myself up if I
make mistakes.) I am beating myself up at this point as I am explaining to my friend that I would never intentionally post something to "promote" it. I simply was excited to have some some new inspiration. I also told her that the pages I do are how God speaks through me- I would never want it to be anything other than that. Our conversation went in a few other directions from there and we never really circled back to this discussion. We said our good-byes and assured one another we will indeed be friends for life.

I returned home from lunch and immediately opened the devotional she had given me, on the inside cover was a note from her, and one sentence in that note made my heart sing: "Your incredible gift in art will be a far reaching ministry God will use to touch many." How could she have possibly known this was something I desperately needed to hear? Or that our conversation at lunch would have gone in that direction? I turn to the first devotional in the book and it speaks to what seems small in our own world- where visions are big but our reality isn't. How we really need to look and see what is hidden in the smallness. Recognizing that this smallness is a gift and in it, is a wisdom you cannot receive any other way. What seems small in our world can have a bigger impact- if the acts are done in humility. James 3:13 "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom ."Light bulb moment!!! Here is my inspiration!!! My little post, that I was stressing over- was in fact that, little! This isn't about me. This isn't about stamps. This isn't about Facebook posts, Instagram posts or blog posts. This is about GOD! This is about my walk with him. This is about finding myself in him and HIS plan for me. The little pages I do may speak to someone and help them connect with our Lord in a way they may not have otherwise. That is the BIG picture in all of this. I know my intentions, I know what I do and why I do it. I know that this is HIS plan for me- not mine. If I can touch one person on this big journey- fantastic! More importantly though, is how God is touching my life and that I'm living it the way he intends. The rest is all icing on the cake!

I've said this before; I am humbled and honored to be a member of of this Creative Worship team. In this humility I have found a new wisdom- for that I am forever thankful. This page was humbly created with "Note This" by Rebecca Rios designs. Blessings,JamieSupplies I used: Note This- Creative Worship Stamps Neocolor II, Gelly Roll Pens, Faber-Castell PITT artist pen White, Wink of Stella Brush Clear, Uniball Signo Gel pen White

Monday, March 7, 2016

Hello, this is Diane. I'm thrilled to be joining the Creative Worship team at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps with my first post. I was amazed that Korin invited me since I'm so new to Bible art-journaling. Perhaps she knew me well enough to know I'd fall in love with this art form because it takes me to the Word of God...one of my favorite places to be. There is so much I have to learn, but perhaps those of you who are new to Bible journaling too will come to realize like I have, that you quickly lose yourself in the worship part of this experience. There is no one right style or level of expertise required to make art-journaling work for you. Just dive in, let God wash over you with more and more of who He is, and the art is personal to YOU. It certainly helps to have a variety of wonderful stamps from Korin's new line...just for Bible journaling...Creative Worship. Isn't that the perfect name, because that's exactly what we do. We express our worship through a fun, uplifting and personally creative form of art.

Since my husband and I will celebrate another anniversary next month, April 2, I decided to design something in Song of Solomon. David and I wrote our own vows using verses from this book, so it made a great canvas for art-journaling. Korin had the perfect stamp set in the Creative Worship section of her store...

Here is the two page spread I designed. I wanted an old, splashy antique watercolor look to it. (I'm still very much in the experimenting stages, determining how art mediums interact with the thin pages of my Bible. I'd read about practicing on some of the back pages in your Bible which I thought was a great idea.) I depicted SS 2:4, 16 in the margin of the left page..."my page" and the verse David referenced (SS 4:9) in his vows on the right page. I feel very sheltered in our marriage. Thinking of David's love being
over me like a protective banner so aptly describes the safety I feel.
Husbands are to nurture their wives, bringing them to a banquet table of
all that delights a woman's heart and soul.

I brushed over the entire surface of both pages with brown watercolor and added more distressing by sponging with brown ink and creating some darker splatters. I taped off the two verses I wanted to highlight later with red.

David's vows were amazing. But when he got to his paraphrased version of SS 4:9, I melted. All he did was to insert my name in the verse! I was already David's sister in Christ. That is a deep bond that makes the marriage relationship, being his bride, even deeper, stronger, more resilient through the storms of life and love.

To design "his page" I used the heart from the set and colored with watercolor paints again. I hand-lettered on both pages---ugh, still lots of practicing to do on that! Since the theme is about banners, I thought it would be fun to add the washi tape banner. I've spent years designing greeting cards and could just never get the hang of washi tape. Bible journaling is MADE for it! I've used it more in the time I've been journaling (weeks) than in all my years making cards! It made a perfect little banner and that added some color to my page.

I'm so looking forward to this journey with Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, with Korin, and all the precious ladies here. And I'm looking forward to the journey with YOU. We are so glad you are here, so thankful that you might find a little inspiration from our projects. We know will love all the new sets coming out that will be perfect for your art journaling. So come back and visit the Creative Worship section of the store often.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Hello there! Audrey here! Today I have a Bible Journaling page to share with you! I recently started my Bible Journaling journey, and I am thrilled to see so many products hitting the market with Bible Journaling in mind! I just love that the Creative Worship line is filled with such a variety of designs! My favorite alphabet set is part of the He is Risen Bible Journaling Kit. The "Love Ya Like a Sister" alpha is the perfect size for bible margins, and it's fun, whimsical style is perfect for a variety of themes!

I chose to journal 2 Corinthians 5:7 - "for we walk by faith, not by sight". I started off by scraping several colors of heavy body acrylic paint on to my page with an old credit card. After the paint was dry, I stamped the verse with Versafine Onyx Black ink. It required A LOT of drying time, even using a heat tool. The ink was sitting on top of the acrylic paint, and because of that, it stayed wet longer. (Don't look too closely as my little fingerprint smudges *wink*). I added a few cardstock stickers, and some hand drawn doodles to finish off my page.

Here you can see how I chose to highlight the verse I was journaling. A swipe of acrylic paint really draws the eye to the bottom of the page.